VICTOR Chiyadzwa (38) sits miserably in his wheelchair waiting for elusive customers to visit his vending stall in Harare’s central business district.
NYARADZO MUSHANYUKI/NYASHA CHINGONO
Clad in a blue T-shirt and red track bottoms, Chiyadzwa toils daily to eke a living, often running into troublesome municipal police officers, a menace to street vendors in the city centre.
Displaying winter hats, socks and gloves, Chiyadzwa looks to take advantage of the cold weather to earn more money.
On a good day, Chiyadzwa makes US$5, which is barely enough to pay monthly rentals, food and transport.
The marauding council police have compounded his misery, demanding bribes to allow him to operate in town.
Many vendors like Chiyadzwa have endured daily raids, losing wares worth a fortune, often to unscrupulous police officers.
The 38-year-old has been struggling to provide his hypertensive mother with chronic medication. He has also been forced to cut on meals, eating only once a day.
“Life has been difficult since the lockdown began last year, and the city council has not made things easier. I am trying to recover the little income I lost, but I always lose my goods during raids,” Chiyadzwa told The NewsHawks.
“As you can see, I am disabled. I cannot run away like others. It becomes difficult to protect my stuff,” he laments.
Vulnerable communities have borne the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic which has affected Zimbabwe’s economic prospects.
Chiyadzwa narrates his daily struggles working in central Harare, often falling prey to unscrupulous passers-by.
Those who offer to push his wheelchair end up stealing the little money and food he has.
“This place is a jungle and not fit for people like me. I cannot count how many times people have stolen from me. How do you steal from a man who is also struggling to make a living?” Chiyadzwa lamented.
Life at home has worsened since Zimbabwe plunged into its first Covid-19 lockdown.
“Money is difficult to come by these days. Not many people come to buy. I will be lucky if I get enough to pay rentals. My landlord is often complaining about late payments, but there is nothing I can do,” Chiyadzwa said.
Zimbabweans continue suffering in silence as the economic woes persist.
With no end in sight to the daily struggles, Zimbabweans are determined to toil for a living, doing menial jobs, vending, and sometimes begging for survival.
Skyrocketing prices of basic commodities have forced millions into poverty, with the World Bank estimating that 7.9 million Zimbabweans will continue wallowing in extreme poverty this year.
Of the 7.9 million, more than a million are minors who have plunged into child poverty.
Prisca Nhiwatiwa (37), a mother of two, decried the unrelenting economic hardships which forced her out of employment.
A former waitress, Nhiwatiwa told The NewsHawks that life has been unbearable since she lost her job last year.
Now surviving on selling budget basic commodities in the Unit M area of Chitungwiza, Nhiwatiwa says people are shunning supermarkets selling goods at expensive prices.
Nhiwatiwa buys basic commodities and repackages them into smaller quantities such that a family can buy a product enough for a day or week, be it cooking oil, mealie-meal or other products. Some repacked groceries are so austere they have been likened to “emergency rations”.
“It has become a hassle to acquire basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil, sugar and flour at affordable prices. This has seen some people shunning supermarkets as they can no longer keep up with the pricing,” she said.
“My business is now picking up because people are looking for cheaper commodities.”
But her newfound stream of income is not enough to provide for her two school-going children.
Living from hand to mouth has forced her to register for food relief with local non-governmental organisations.
“My rentals shot up last month and I am now paying US$35. It may sound like a low amount, but I struggle to pay it. My children’s school fees are also hard to come by because their father does not work. We just hope things will get better, but now it is bad,” she says.
Urban poverty has more than doubled since 2020 as Covid-19 continued to decimate livelihoods in towns.
Prices shot up in recent weeks, with basic commodities such as cooking oil going for ZW$449.99 (US$5), flour ZW$229.99 (US$2.90) and sugar ZW$249.99 (US$2).
Super beef costs ZW$714 .00 per kg (US$8.50), with prices of other commodities also shooting up.
Families have been forced to substitute meat with sour milk, kapenta, soya chunks and offals as economic woes bite.
Prices of clothes in boutiques have also shot up, with traders seeking to recover profits lost during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Statutory Instrument (SI) 127 of 2021 plunged the market into a quandary as new foreign currency measures, among other stipulations, prohibit business operators from charging above the official exchange rate and punish those who refuse to take the spiked prices.
The government late last month gazetted the new rules under SI 127 to tame the exchange rate on the parallel market while stabilising the local currency. Weeks after the SI was enacted, the market has seen prices shooting up.
With fuel prices spiking, transport fares have shot beyond the reach of many struggling Zimbabweans. Hundreds of commuters are seen queueing daily for Zupco buses which are relatively cheaper but largely unreliable.
Mercy Maphosa (30) waits impatiently for a Zupco bus which costs ZW$45 per trip from Chitungwiza and she is running late for work.
On her meagre salary, Maphosa can afford only public transport.
Braving the cold to catch the early bus, Maphosa impatiently waits in a long, winding queue.
“With my salary, I cannot afford to use commuter omnibuses, which are US$2 per trip. I always run late for work due to the unreliability of transport. I fear contracting Covid-19 because the buses are too crowded,” she said.
To alleviate the plight of urban commuters, who are finding it hard to pay commuter fares, the government in January 2019 introduced a public transport system coordinated by the state-owned Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) at heavily subsidised fares.
The move was also meant to pacify restless citizens as social discontent and public anger grew over government’s inability to solve the country’s economic woes.
With companies closing shop due to a lack of profitability, many have found themselves jobless.
According to the World Bank, more than 500 000 people have lost their jobs since the first lockdown last year, a situation that has decimated livelihoods.
Wage earners in urban areas were also disproportionally affected by the pandemic, as their pay was cut, or no pay was received at all. Rural households, which rely less on wage employment and depend on farm business, were less affected.
Independent analysts say Zimbabwe has 90% unemployment, with millions in the informal sector.
Some companies in the productive sector have shut shop, as most of the companies are failing to stay afloat.
Three years into office, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has failed to resuscitate the economy.
Mnangagwa is presiding over an imploding economy while international funders continue shunning the country over growing debt arrears.
His re-engagement drive, which was meant to re-open lines of credit with international funders, has failed dismally in the face of gross human rights violations.
